


Adapting Under Pressure

by Zhelana



Category: X-Men - All Media Types, seaQuest
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-12 08:33:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10486626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zhelana/pseuds/Zhelana
Summary: Something is happening to Lucas that he can't control. Is there something wrong with him? Can anyone understand?





	

Lucas threw back his 6th beer, then began to stumble from the Rumstein concert to the pier where he had parked the stinger. Biff caught up with him. “Hey, Lucas, I think you had a few too many to be driving there, bud.”   
“Nah, I’m good.”   
“Why don’t you give me your keys, I’ll get you back to the seaQuest?”   
“I’m good. I know my limits,” Lucas pulled his keys out of his pocket, and flipped them, missing them and dropping them on the ground. Biff gave him a skeptical look. “Oops” Lucas said lightly picking them up and getting into the stinger. He put the keys in the ignition, and left the dock. Then he started driving as quickly as possible towards the seaQuest. He almost hit another parked submersible, but pulled up just in time, missing it, and laughing. “Oops! OK pay attention, Lucas.” He continued driving erratically but without incident for another half an hour. He could see the seaQuest, when he hit a rock. There was a hole in the stinger, letting water into the sub. Lucas panicked. The emergency pod was cracked, so there was no where else to go, and he was flooding. Water was coming in increasingly rapidly, and his communications were out so he couldn’t contact the seaQuest. He was certainly doomed. “Stupid!” He yelled at himself. 

 

All of a sudden he felt rubbery. He felt himself fall out of his clothes, and squish his body into a tiny ball. Then he was in the water. He seemed to be breathing the water. He tried it experimentally a few times. Yes, he was breathing water. Now he had to figure out how to get back to the seaQuest. He tried the breast stroke, using 4 of his front limbs to do a froggy paddle, and then using his 4 hind limbs to kick. He didn’t get much of anywhere. He wondered briefly why he had 8 limbs. Then he tried to kick with all of them. He succeeded in turning upside down so his mantle was heading towards the bottom of the ocean. Slightly panicked, he squeezed all of his limbs together. To his surprise, he shot in a straight line, quickly towards the bottom. He threw some of his limbs to the side so his mantle was heading towards the seaQuest, and squeezed again. He moved quickly in a straight line towards the seaQuest. He tried it again. It was not a fluke. He got to the seaQuest. Then he realized, he had to figure out how to get them to let him aboard. He attached himself to the hull and started moving around it using his suckers to get around. Finally, he stumbled on the answer. Sooner or later they had to let Darwin out to feed. He attached himself to the seaQuest right outside the sea doors, and waited for Darwin.   
It was only a couple hours, but to Lucas it felt like much more. Darwin swam out the sea doors, and Lucas swam in them. He swam through the pipes until he reached sea deck. He suddenly found he could not breathe underwater, and had no clothes. He jumped out of the water, and pulled on a wetsuit that was kept there so that the crew could play with Darwin. He ran through the hallways until he reached his room in mammal engineering. Then he passed out on his bed, still dressed in a wetsuit.   
He woke the next afternoon with the worst headache of his life. “Oh man,” he groaned, “now I have to tell Bridger I wrecked the stinger. But how did Darwin find me?” He looked at the dolphin, who was swimming by him. “Thanks Darwin,” he smiled, then told him to go to sea deck and he’d bring him some fish. Certainly Darwin had saved his life last night when he wrecked? There was no other logical explanation. Darwin had found him and dragged him back to the seaQuest. Then he had had a nightmare about becoming an octopus, and being naked in sea deck. What a realistic nightmare that was. He groaned again. His head was killing him. He met the dolphin on sea deck anyway, and brought a few fish. He gave the fish to Darwin. Since he was still wearing the wet suit, he got in the water with him, and pet him. “No suit, Skin!” Darwin said. Lucas looked at him “No, Darwin, I have a suit on.” The dolphin made that high pitched squealing noise Lucas thought meant he was laughing at him. They swam around and played basketball for about an hour.  
Lucas made his way to Doctor Westphalen. “Hey, Doc, do you have any Advil?” he asked casually.   
“Of course. What’s wrong?”  
“Got in a little accident last night. No big deal, but I’m a little sore.”  
“An accident? Let me examine you,” she insisted, and despite his protests she continued to insist. He climbed onto the examination table. She shone a light into each of his eyes, making him flinch and recoil.   
“Lucas! You’re hungover!”  
“No I’m not, Doc. Just sore from the accident.”  
“No, you are hungover. Were you drunk when you had this accident?”   
Lucas didn’t answer.  
“Do not lie to me young man.”   
“Yes, ma’am.”   
“I’m going to have to report this to Captain Bridger,” she told him.   
“I know” he said, having the good graces to look sheepish.   
She finished looking him over, and then told him to wait so she could get Bridger down there. 

Bridger made his way down to medbay, and looked at Lucas and Westphalen. Westphalen launched into an explanation of how she had caught Lucas having a drunk driving accident. Bridger put his head into his hands and looked at the floor. “I’m sorry, Captain,” Lucas said.   
“I know you are. But there still have to be consequences. You are grounded. And in the mean time you can help Katie down below decks with the air conditioning unit.   
“Yes, sir.”   
“And I want you to write me a report on the legal consequences of being caught driving drunk.”   
“Yes sir.”   
“You’re lucky you got back here.”  
“Yes sir”  
“By the way, how did you get back here?”   
“It was the weirdest thing but I think Darwin found me and dragged me back here. But he dragged me back here without my clothes. Strangest thing.”   
“You’re a very lucky young man,” Kristen told him.   
“I know.”   
“Alright, sleep off that headache. First thing tomorrow I want you down with Katie. I’ll tell her to look for you.” Nathan turned and left.   
“I’ll be there.” Lucas said to his back as he stood up and made his way back to mammal engineering. This time he managed to take the wetsuit off before collapsing into bed. 

The next morning, Lucas, Katie, and her team were lifting a large pipe into place. He had been working with her for over an hour. “Look out!” one of the men yelled, as he dropped the pipe. Lucas moved quickly to get out of the way of the pipe. In doing so, he bumped his head on another pipe. It started spewing steam, burning all of the men standing near it. Most of them were able to move out of the way, but Ben was not, and Lucas grabbed him, then ran with the speed of Quicksilver away from the steam.   
“How did you do that?” Ben asked.   
“Do what?”   
“Run so fast.”   
“Just adrenaline I guess,” Lucas answered, shrugging.   
“No, that wasn’t adrenaline. That was like X-Men Shit,” Ben disagreed. “You have super powers.”   
“No I don’t. I think I’d know if I did.”   
“I have whiplash from you dragging me away from that pipe. You moved faster than it is possible for a human to move.”   
“No, I didn’t. I just ran at human speeds.”   
“At human speeds you’d have some burns from being that close to the steam. Yet you haven’t even mentioned going to see Doctor Westphalen.”   
“Just lucky I guess,” Lucas answered but he looked uncertain. He had been awfully close to that pipe when it burst. He should have gotten burned; that was for sure. Yet nothing hurt, and he felt fine.   
“You’re not lucky. You’re a mutant.”   
“Leave it alone, Ben. I’m not a mutant.” Lucas scowled and walked away.   
Katie yelled after him, “where are you going? You’re not done.”   
“My arm hurts, I need the doctor,” he lied, and then because he thought maybe the doctor would feel bad for him, he went there. He told her he’d been under a bursting pipe and she looked at his head and shoulders, but found no evidence of burns.   
“You look fine to me,” Kristen said, suggesting that he go take a nap, and return to work the next day. “But no more excuses,” she said.   
He agreed, then went back to mammal engineering, where he slid under the covers, and fell asleep. 

The next day, Ben, Katie, and Lucas were back hard at work in the bowls of the ship trying to fix the AC down there. Ben was continuing to talk about how fast Lucas had run, and how he was certain he was a mutant.   
“Give it up, Ben,” Lucas snapped. “Look, I can’t run any faster than you.” At that Lucas took off at a run down the hallway. Ben saw his opportunity, and tossed a broken piece of pipe at Lucas, expecting him to have to use super speed to avoid hitting it and hurting himself. Instead, Lucas jumped, and landed on the ceiling, which he clung to apparently by magic.   
“Lucas…” Ben started.   
“Ben, what am I doing on the ceiling?”   
“Beats me. I just thought you were fast.”   
“Well, great, how do I get down from here?” And as he asked it, whatever was sticking him to the ceiling unstuck itself and he landed unceremoniously on his back. Then he bounced forward and landed on his feet.   
“You’re a mutant Lucas, I just can’t decide what your power is.”  
“I… I guess so. But why haven’t I known about this before?”   
“Maybe it only activates when you’re in danger?”   
“Maybe,” Lucas replied, “I haven’t been in danger much in my life before now. So now what?”   
“They have schools for mutants. Maybe you go learn how to use your superpowers.”   
“I have a masters degree. I may be a child, but I don’t need to be at a school.”   
“Let’s get this air conditioning fixed, then you can talk to Bridger about it.” So they continued lifting heavy pipes until the job was done. Then Lucas went back to his own room and lay in the bed staring at the ceiling. While he was lying there he started hearing a voice in his head.   
“Let me help you,” the voice said.   
“Who’s this? How are you doing this?”   
“My name is Charles Xavier. I help children like you learn to use their gifts.”   
“I’m not sure this is a gift.” Lucas replied, out loud as he still wasn’t accustomed to talking to people in his head.   
“It is. I can help you see it as one. Together we can learn to control it.”   
“What happens if I don’t let you help me?” Lucas asked.   
“Then you continue to stumble into situations where your gift activates, and you can’t control it. You wind up naked in the moon pool. Or you wind up becoming a rock and incapable of figuring out how to turn back into a human.”   
“Well I guess spending some time with you can’t hurt. But I’m not going to high school classes.”   
“Very good. You can help teach the students here about computers.”   
“Yeah, I can do that.” Lucas smiled. As long as they didn’t treat him like a child, he could spend some time and learn to control this.


End file.
